v  The title makes the reader understand the book speaks about an act that allocated duties to local authorities to ensure children are safeguarded. It also makes provisions for instances when parents and families do not co-operate with statutory bodies for the children’s health.

So the intelligent reader supposes the story may be about a child that have some healthcomplications.

v  “When a court determines any question with respect to…the upbringing of a child… the child’s welfare shall be the court’s paramount consideration”

Section I(a), the Children Act(1989)

The citation underlines the real focus of attention in the Children act: the court set itself the objective to guarantee the children’s welfare.

v  The book is composed by five chapters, each one has a specific function:

The first chapter, called by the writer “one” is an introduction of the Fiona Maye’s life-one of the main characters of the story. Her main position is emphasized right from the first lines, when the third person narrator details her problems with the husband and her legal cases, especially the current one. The relation between the first and the second chapter is the recent case: A bright, lively boy (Adam) three months short of his eighteenth birthday needs a blood transfusion. He and his parents are Jehovah’s Witnesses, and are refusing the treatment; and it is the argument of the second chapter.

In the third chapter Fiona goes to see Adam and decides that the transfusion must go ahead.

In the 4^th chapter, Adam is safe and starts to write some letters to Fiona, but she doesn’t answer. So the boy chooses to go in Newcastle, where Fiona is attended a conference. In that occasion Adam kisses Fiona, but luckily, nobody witnessed the kiss and she doesn’t get into trouble.

The find boy, in the 5^th chapter, sends her one of his poems, full of transparent symbolism about the way she made him betray his faith. And there’s a reference to a kiss in it. She considers a reply, which she doesn’t send. I think that’s three strikes, Milady. Some weeks later she finds out he’s dead, having refused another transfusion, ostensibly on religious grounds. She sees it as suicide, and that it’s her fault.